Does anyone recognize what's happening in this photo from the archives of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette?
Hint: The year was 1980.
The Arkansas River Valley Railroad Club, organized in 1962, was based for more than a decade in the basement of the train terminal known today as Union Station.
The 15 members — engineers, architects, photographers, students — constructed a vastly tiny tribute to an era of steam and diesel locomotion that ended in Arkansas in the 1930s. Admission was free.
By April 1963, their "HO" gauge model of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad from 1917 on) had 700 feet of teeny track to carry handbuilt or ready-made steam- or diesel-driven trains through replicas of stations at McRae, Kensett, Bald Knob, Wynne and Newport.
Arkansas Democrat reporter Jerry Dean described the layout in 1965. He liked its Little Rock terminal replica, whose wee brass rails were laid on match-stick-size ties placed individually to achieve a realistic effect of gravel on the roadbed. Nickel-silvered rail tops resembled steel, and a "dirty" flat finish coated the sides.
Photo Gallery
Arkansas River Valley Railroad Club
Scenes from the Nov. 23, 1980, open house of the Arkansas River Valley Railroad Club at its clubhouse, 3300 River Road in North Little Rock. The clubhouse was demolished in 2014.
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Schedules were to scale, too, reduced from real MoPac schedules so that 8- to 10-hour routes took 10 minutes. Mini trains sped along at about a foot per second. They crossed a tiny Baring Cross Bridge to a tiny MoPac yard roundhouse. Details along the multi-tier route included cattle pens, a coal chute and a cotton gin.
Originally, the club resolved to limit membership to no more than 25. But by November 1980, when Mark Baldwin shot these photos for the Democrat, they were "always looking for members" — anyone at least 16 years old who was "willing to put up with the rest of us."
And the elaborate train layout was no longer at the Little Rock station, having been forced out when Tracks Inn leased its space in 1975. The club erected a clubhouse at 3300 River Road in North Little Rock.
Painted yellow, the unprepossessing metal building gave no clue that, inside, an elaborate world sprawled, with almost 2,000 feet of track laid over every square foot not needed for a viewing platform and a control board. Recordings provided the rumblings and whistles of steam engines.
With the exception of the occasional open house, the building kept to itself as decades came and went. It was a landmark for runners and cyclists looking for the Arkansas River Trail.
In 2014, a massive tree toppled onto the clubhouse during a storm. The building was demolished.